92: Where to Start Fixing Your Business Operations (Without Overwhelm or Overcomplicating It)

Speaker A: You know that list that's in your head? The one that has all the things you keep meaning to do and sort out in your business? The follow ups you keep forgetting? The finances that feel fuzzy, the delivery that only works. And it only works smoothly because you're the one that's actually doing it. It's not that you don't know things need fixing. It's that every time you sit down to actually try and attempt to fix them, um, you don't even know where to begin. And that's exactly what we're chatting about today.

Speaker B: Welcome to beyond you'd Business, the show

Speaker A: where we get real about what it

Speaker B: actually takes to lead in business and in life.

Speaker A: I'm Amy Sussex, your behind the scenes

Speaker B: support in systems, client experience, scaling and sustainable growth. I work with visionary women who are done with burnout and ready to step into leadership with clarity and confidence. This podcast is for the women shifting from overwhelmed operator to being an empowered CEO. Um, the ones who want to build a business that feel as good as they look. Each week we dive into conversations about leadership, systems, client experience, motherhood, and the messy middle of entrepreneurship, all through the lens of building with intention, ease and alignment. I created this podcast because I believe how you lead yourself shapes everything.

Speaker A: Your systems, your team, your results.

Speaker B: What works for you should be as

Speaker A: unique as your business.

Speaker B: If you're ready to step into things differently in a way that supports your vision and your capacity, you're in the right place.

Speaker A: Let's explore what's possible. Welcome back to beyond your Business. So if you listened to the last episode, you now understand something that a lot of small business owners never really stop to think about and consider that business operations is not just one thing. Yes, it's a buzzword that we hear, but it's not actually just one thing. It's actually made up of five core pillars that I believe it's customers, sales, delivery, finance, and the systems at the end of the day that are holding everything together. And once you see that something interesting starts to happen, something starts to shift. It feels clear, less chaotic, and, um, at the end of the day, a little less overwhelming. So now the question becomes, okay, so I realize that I need to work through like, my pillars of my business. So what do I actually do with that? Like, where do I even start? And that sometimes can a lot of times feel overwhelmed for people because you're like, I don't even know where to begin. So if you've ever felt like this in your business, you're not alone. And this is a Lot of times where clients come to me is because they're like, I know I need to fix something. I just don't know where to start because it all feels like it all needs to be done and it's all important and it's all like, should have been done yesterday. Right. So this is a lot of times where people get stuck, and it's not because you're not knowing that your business is messy. It's at the stage that you know it's messy, but you just don't even know where to begin or how to fix it. So, so today I really want to slow this down and make this simple for you because again, you're not fixing your business operations by fixing everything all at once. You're fixing it by figuring out where the best place to start is for you. And so the first important thing I want to say is you don't always start with, like, what feels like the most overwhelming or the most important, because a lot of times that can not always go. We put like a quick band aid fix on that. So really what you want to start with is what feels the most painful to you. Yes, you want to start with that because that's going to free up your time, your energy and your capacity and your joy in your business again. Right. Like, you didn't create and start a business to feel burnt out, stressed out, and not have any joy or fun in it. So if there's something your business is feeling the most painful right now causing you the most fun friction, feels like it keeps breaking, not allowing you to breathe. And you keep saying, I need to fix this. This is the place I want you to start at. This is the starting point. And so, you know, it's. Look again, looking at those five pillars of customer, sales, delivery, finance, and the admin side of things in your business. So, you know, what we've talked about last time was in most businesses, it's one or two of these things are typically fine, and then one or two of them are. Are normally quite chaotic in the background. And so we're not trying to improve everything. We're just doing one area. And a lot of times what happens is people start jumping everywhere because they're like, I need to fix a bit of marketing and I need to fix my finances and I need to fix my tools and I need to fix my planner, I need to fix my system, I need to fix everything, but nothing actually sticks and stays because there's no focus. I always think of that game at the fair, like the whack A mole, right? Like something pops up and you're smacking it and then you're trying to smack the next thing. And that's essentially what it feels like in your business is like a fire pops up, smacking that down, like, stay back down. I don't want to deal with you right now. But again, we're trying to deal with one thing at a time. So then that way we don't have this feeling of constant, if you could see me right now, I'm smacking everything. That constant feeling of hitting everything and trying to have no structure again, no focus, and trying to do quick fixes. That's not what we're wanting to do. Yes, sometimes quick fixes make sense and work in the moment. However, we want this to be sustainable, long lasting, and something that can continue to grow and evolve with you and your business and your team. So we're starting out with one pillar, the one that feels the most painful. Not the whole business, not everything. Again, just one area. So if it is again around like money being unclear or you're unsure how you actually made that money, then that's the finance side of things. So let's dig into that and let's reduce some of that business stress. If your concern is feeling overwhelmed with the client delivery of work or the quality of things you feel like, keep changing that again can be an operational issue. So really I want you to stop seeing uh, your business as like one big chaotic thing. Because that's a lot of times where we go to in our head and start seeing it as like again, these specific areas that we need to break down. And so picking one area, we're not overhauling it, we're not rebuilding everything. You're not gonna go again and buy like five different things or redesign your whole business in a weekend. We're doing simple, smaller, one step at a time. And so we want a system that is something that we do in a repeatable way. Something that you don't have to think about it over and over again. Something that isn't causing space in your brain and capacity in your brain. And it's really again removing that decision fatigue. Because I don't know about you, but as a business owner, as a wife, as a mother, I'm decision fatigued all the time and really trying to remove that. And my clients are as well. And I had a conversation the other day with a client because their husband was like, what do you want for supper? It's like, I don't even just decide. I don't want have the Energy or the capacity to make that decision. Stop asking me questions, just make the decision. So we want to reduce that because if we have a simple system in place and the process, you're removing that decision fatigue because it's like boom, this is what I do. And it becomes second nature and a habit and it's again creating that consistency. So if the pain is in follow ups, you're not trying to fix your sales process or you need to get better at closing or more consistent or you're not hiring a sales coach because of it. The issue is you probably don't have in place to do an actual follow up system. So maybe it's like, okay, the next time I'm going to follow up with Susie, I sent her these three emails. Perfect. These three emails are now going to be my follow up emails that I use going forward. And I have that saved in my ClickUp or I have that saved in my Google Drive or whatever platform that you're using. You have that saved so that you know when I go to do this, boom, here it is. If you're using a CRM, amazing. Even better. I love dubsado. So if you've got that in dubsado or Honeybook or whatever you're using, you can now have that uh, be as automations of like, hey, I sent follow up one to Suzy. If she doesn't reply back within five days, let's send follow up two to Susie. So you can create those automations or you can have those live in there and you or your team can be manually pushing them out but at the end of the day you've got those there and you're not having to rethink it every single time. And so I talked about before too, if maybe it's like a financing thing of like you're not actually looking at your books, you're not taking that time. So like again, scheduling it on Fridays is when you're going to review everything, you're going to get stuff that you need to your accountant, you're going to have that wonderful money mindset habit that's in place so that you can make those decisions because you're actually doing the work that needs to be done in your business. And so you know, we don't have to make things complicated. And I think a lot of times people think, oh, I need to have this like big elaborate thing. No, it's creating these small consistent habits and making sure to schedule that time in and really that it's that simple. And so it's creating that habit that consistency. So if you're feeling overwhelmed in your business, it's again, not that you're doing things wrong, it's that you're trying to do everything and everything feels like it needs your attention. Everything feels important and you're not trying to fix, uh, everything. You're trying to stabilize one thing at a time and then you move on to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. And so again, it's just creating that simple process. And so what I want you to take away from today is where's the most painful thing that's happening right now in your business? And then match that to one of those five pillars. Customers, sales, delivery, finance, or systems. And you know what, even if you need to brain dump, these are things that sometimes is really helpful because we, uh, can look at it and feel like it's overwhelming. So maybe your head is like, I don't know which one is the most important or feels the most painful because they all feel painful. So I want another option you can do is write down what are these five pillars? And then underneath of them, what feels chaotic, painful, stressful for you for those. And then I want you to circle the most painful thing out, uh, of all of that. And if that even feels overwhelming for you, then I want you to circle the most painful thing under each one of them. And then you can make the decision that way. Because I also recognize that not everyone works this way. And some people need to brain dump and get everything out of their head. So I can appreciate that. So go ahead, brain dumb, get everything out of your head. But at the end of the day, you're picking one thing and the most painful out of all of this. Okay, then from there you're creating a repeatable action step. You're not going into a full rebuild a full strategy. You're just doing one simple step. And by creating these simple steps, it's then going to allow you to like, you've got them out of your head, you've got them out of all the different places, your notes, all the other systems that you've got them in right now. And then from there, once you have

Speaker B: these, you've got that clarity, you've got

Speaker A: that time, you've got that space, then you can start to look at the strategy and the structure and everything from there. But right now we need to help you with what's feeling the most painful. And I want you to remember, no business is perfect. That's not the goal of this. There's never going to be a perfect Business, there's never going to be a perfect time. Trust me, there's never gonna be a perfect time to work on your operations of your business. It's just one of those things that needs to get done. Because, like I said, if it's not getting done, it feels overwhelming and chaotic. The goal is not perfection. The goal is to create stability and predictability so that everything feels more manageable, so you can continue to grow, you can continue to scale, you can continue to do what you do best. And that lights you up and is not from a place of, uh, trying to be perfect in your business. And once you have that stability, it starts to feel easier, things start to improve, and then you start to make again those decisions of, like, maybe I'm not going to use this system, or maybe I should be doing the process this way. Because you've actually taken the time to build on things one step at a time, and it allows you to be consistent and not reactive to everything that's happening in your business. Going back to that, like, whack a mole description that I was trying to share.

Speaker B: Right?

Speaker A: Like, again, we're being proactive to things and not constantly reactive to everything. So at the end of the day, I just want you to remember, you don't need to fix everything in your business. I want you to see what is the most painful thing right now and then build one system around that. And then again, that's where the consistency of the habits and the progress starts to happen within your business. And so next episode, we're going to go even deeper because I want you to know you have to start somewhere. And at the end of the day, it's just starting, right? Like when, uh, you think back to, like, you starting your business, you just started, you just did it. It's the same thing as this. We gotta start somewhere. And so at the end of the day, the next question becomes, how do you actually diagnose what really feels broken underneath the surface? And we're gonna break that down next time. So I want you to remember, your business should work with you, not because of you. We'll see you next time.

Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to beyond your business podcast. I hope you're walking away today with clarity, ideas and the inspiration to go take action. If you love this episode, take a moment to follow the show and leave a review. It helps more women like you find their way here. Until next time, lead yourself and everything else will follow.

Speaker A: This podcast is produced by, mixed and edited by Cardinal Studio. For more information about how to start your own podcast, please visit www.cardinalstudio.co or email Mike at mikeardnostudio. Co. You can also find the details in the show not.